Darts: a game where participants compete with one another by throwing small arrow like devices at a target that is round and has numbers and sections and an inner bull with an outer bull and so on. Darts now refer to the standard game with a specific bristle board design and a set of rules. Rules that are general to the game and rules that govern games like, “501,” “301,” and “Cricket.”


Darts is a traditional pub game that was and is commonly played in the United Kingdom as well as other places in Europe and across the pond here in the America’s.


Wikipedia tells hits history in a terse form, i.e., “The dartboard may have its origins in the cross-section of a tree. An old name for a dartboard is "butt"; the word comes from the French word but, meaning "target". In particular, the Yorkshire and Manchester Log End boards differ from the standard board in that they have no treble, only double and bullseye, the Manchester board being of a smaller diameter, with a playing area of only 25 cm across with double and bull areas measuring just 4 mm. The London Fives board is another variation. This has only 12 equal segments numbered 20, 5, 15, 10, 20, 5, 15, 10, 20, 5, 15, 10 with the doubles and triples being a quarter of an inch wide.”


There have been a variety of darts created over the years but the most common today is the tungsten dart. There are electronic darts but for this blog and for my efforts in tossing darts I remain a steel dart fan and enthusiast. I am recommending a book for novice darters but only because it appealed to me and my studies and rest assured most of the dart books out there are outstanding. In short, find one if this one does not fit your needs and get it. I can tell you when I started to play over twenty years ago, before I laid down my darts in 96, I tossed darts for several years without knowing some very important and critical mechanics, etc., of the dart game. As I take up once again my steel darts I have found a fountain of information to help make the game both enjoyable and competitive. Enjoy, diddle for the middle and let the darts fly!

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Nirvana of Darts

Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)

The six dart 301 game and the nine dart 501; the absolute nirvana of the dart world. A goal to strive for in both practice and play. To achieve that goal or any one of those feats would be the epitome of a darter’s discipline. 

It has been twenty years or so since I tossed a few darts, steel, at a bristle board. I remember that I thought the ultimate goal of not just winning a dart tournament but to achieve a top hat, a trip twenty and a trip nineteen feat at a match would be the enlightened mastery nirvana of the dart game but even those today as a winter years man seems common to the six/nine dart awesomeness feat. 

Every dart I now toss, every game be it practice or competitive and my end goal is and will be that distant feat of completing and winning a 301 and 501 competitive game of six/nine dart wins. OhYeahhhhh!

It made me ask, can one throw a minimal dart toss in cricket and has it ben done? Some information on the game of cricket:

“The goal of cricket is to be the first player to open or close all the cricket numbers and have a higher or even point total.” Considering that your opponent can often achieve a score on his turn the perfect six dart cricket match may not be possible. It could be achieved in nine darts by closing out the numbers with three of the nine while the other three anywhere in the process scores enough points to match or exceed those of your opponent. 

“Hitting a number once is shown by placing a slash (/) beside the number, second hit by turning the slash to an X, and the third by a circle (O) around the X.”

“Once a player has opened or closed all the required numbers and bull and has equal or more points than his opponent, that player wins.”

What I found regarding a perfect cricket game, i.e., “It can be completed in eight darts; close all six triples (20 through 15) with the first six darts and then close the bull with two darts, i.e., bull’s eye and double bull or two double bulls.”

In truth then the nirvana of darts is a six dart 301, a nine dart 501 and an eight dart Cricket. Wow, what a feat and what a goal! Considering the strategies and tactics along with the playing level or mastery between contestants it may be close to impossible to have an eight dart Cricket perfect match. Regardless, it is still a lofty and attainable goal. Here is another question, “Has anyone tossed a perfect cricket game?” 

“In order for any life to matter, we all have to matter.” - Marcus Luttrell, Navy Seal (ret)



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